The government has set up NIC- CERT centre that will monitor, detect and prevent cyber attacks on government networks, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said.

Besides, the government has called a meeting of state IT ministers which will also include discussions on cybersecurity and safety.

“In January, we will have a meeting of (state) IT ministers and cybersecurity and safety will be an important component of that discussion. I have directed that the role of state governments has to be expanded in the area of cybersecurity,” Prasad told reporters here.

He said there has been an exponential growth in cyber attacks, leading to concerns of data theft that prompted the government to work on Data Protection Act.

Internet has expanded the canvas of opportunities for people, but the need to upscale existing security infrastructure has also grown, he pointed.

Talking about the centre, Prasad said it will monitor the traffic and movement of information across various networks against any suspicious activity.

It will also alert the concerned parties in case it detects any malicious activity. National Informatics Centre (NIC) helps government agencies build their digital presence.

“This is establishment of an institution in India’s pursuit of safe and secure cyberspace. Any unusual movement on the NIC network, any attacks, intrusions will be detected and cleaned,” Prasad said.

The government has already announced setting up of similar frameworks for the finance and power sectors, he added.

NIC-CERT will also work in close coordination and collaboration with sectoral CERTs and CERT-In.

Using various tools, the team at NIC-CERT will be able to identify vulnerabilities and possible exploits and the intelligence gathered will give CERT the ability to predict and prevent attacks.

NIC Director General Neeta Verma explained that communication between government officials and government and citizens travels through NIC network.

“The government has taken a number of initiatives to protect the data and this (centre) is another step in that direction,” she added.